The Giants are 1-3.
1-3.
The Giants lost to the Saints at home yesterday 33-18 and this team is the most disappointing team in the entire NFL. Every year I believe that this Giants team is legitimate and can contend, yet every year we get let down. Sunday was an all around disappointment except for the first quarter (which we didn’t get to watch because CBS is ran by idiots who decided to air the end of the Colts-Texans game instead of the scheduled game of the week).
So what went wrong? It’s hard to say but we’re going to give it a shot.
OFFENSE: Nothing worked at all for Big Blue and for the first time this year the offense line isn’t to blame. Eli has decided that he will no longer throw interceptions which causes him to check the ball down to Saquon Barkley way too often. Saquon was targeted on 20 percent of all of Eli’s throws and against Dallas he had 14 catches. The Giants are taking the easy way out of each play because Pat Shurmur is willing to sacrifice having chunk plays to win the turnover battle. I get it. The turnover battle usually can tell the winner of the game, but your game plan has to be to move the ball; not to just play keep away. Odell is a top 3 wide receiver and were continually using Ben Mcadoo’s approach of throwing him slants and hoping he breaks one. Odell was visibly angry and I don’t blame him one bit. Give the guy a chance to make a big play even if that means a chance at an interception because what we’re doing now is not working at all. Shurmur needs to keep in Barkley and Ellison more often to block which gives Eli more time and forces him to throw the ball downfield. Also, let’s get under Center and give Saquon some old school run plays like Power O and stretch which gives him time to make cutbacks.
DEFENSE: The team played sloppy. They constantly let Kamara break tackles which I understand is hard to do, but we also got beat on the read option when New Orleans brought in Taysom Hill. There was one in particular where Martin and Collins both accounted for Hill which gave Kamara an easy 1st down when it should’ve been a 0 yard gain and a 3rd down stop. Curtis Riley seemed to lack effort at Safety and I don’t know if we can plug someone else in there. We all love Michael Thomas (Giants safety) but we already have Landon Collins who often plays at a linebacker so we need a Riley type back there who gives the Giants speed. Also, Eli Apple and Olivier Vernon continue to be out and those are extremely key guys so part of the struggle on defense was just pure lack of talent out there.
So this team that we thought would be a Super Bowl contender is not looking hot yet we’re still in it and my dumb optimistic self still sees hope. Tua 2020 folks!
Catch the latest episode of Simple Man Radio with New York Giants beat reporter Dan Duggan of The Athletic to talk about the team.
Photo: Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-PIcayune
